There is no question that the attacks in Paris are a tragedy, and it is moments like this that the world should come together as one to show support for our fellow man, however the term “fellow man” should extend to all branches of the planet, despite race, culture, religion, or location. A day before the attacks in Paris, another attack being claimed by ISIS took place in Beirut, killing 43, and wounding 239 others. In January of this year, 2,000 Nigerians lost their lives in the massacre in Baga, and 147 lost their lives in a terrorist attack at a university in northern Kenya. No flags flew at Facebook, YouTube, or any of the other various sites that are currently standing in solidarity with Paris, and many are questioning why this is.

“Hey Facebook can we get a Beirut color option also for profile pics,” tweeted comedian,Sanjay Manaktala.

“Let us not forget, 43 people died in Beirut and 200 were wounded on Thursday,” Bette Midlertweeted.

All social-media aside, the fact that the mainstream media has scrambled to cover the events in Paris has not gone by unnoticed either. The New York Times has published an article specifically covering this issue. According to them, multiple news networks began to mobilize and dispatch as many correspondents to Paris as possible, with CNN alone dispatching an estimated 70 people by Saturday.

Taking everything into consideration, it is indeed questionable that social and mainstream media outlets covered the attacks in Paris so intensely while numerous other massacres have gone by unnoticed. As with nearly every major tragedy of this sort, we are left with more questions than answers, and numerous uncertainties. Between the appalling lack of news coverage over the various other attacks around the world, and Western society’s lack of compassion for those areas simply accepted as being “war-torn”, it would come as no surprise if most readers had never heard of these incidents.

In an article for the AnitMedia, journalist Claire Bernish had this to say:

“Without question, I mourn for Paris’ recent victims and their families—and I would never claim knowledgeable firsthand experience of the same. But I refuse—despite my partial French heritage—to cloak myself in nationalism of any stripe or star, particularly not now. Because, besides victims in Paris, an incomprehensibly astronomic number of people have been grieving loss of the highest order for some time—in places whose names roll off our tongues as if it’s accepted that violence simply happens there—and a majority likely couldn’t guess the colors on these victims’ flags.”

The point Bernish is trying to make is that we are all part of the human species, and every human life has just as much worth as the next. For centuries, we as human beings have separated ourselves from one another with invisible lines that we call borders, and within these invisible lines, we gather together as clans, thinking of ourselves as different from everyone else, and openly fighting the other clans for a little more dirt. Sounds primitive, does it not?

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9 COMMENTS

I find it crass that people are so anal about WHO receives love from our fellow man. All that articles such as this one encourage is that people shouldn’t care at all because they can’t care about everyone. Its a horrible excuse to not be human, simply because you can’t include everyone in the effort. It seems too close to a political response to be honest to be taken seriously by most of us.

Yes, bad things happen in other places and yes those lives are just as important. So lets not degrade BOTH parties by having nothing to do with either of them.

On another note, France is an ally of the US. Americans know about how they held our flag up on 9/11 and most Americans will do the same for their brothers and sisters in France. So sorry I couldn’t find time to search all the news outlets for information about all these tragedies. Still, lets not snub this one simply to make a point as most are doing.

You took the opposite message from this article that I got from it. I don’t see how Anonymous is saying people shouldn’t care. seems to me theyre saying we should care about everyone, not just the victims in Paris. If the message you got is not to care, youre either naturally heartless, or your purposfuly trying to read it wrong. Read it again.

Also, using 9/11 and Frances support is kind of hollow when just a couple years later Americans were willing to change the name of French fries to “freedom fries” since France wouldn’t support the illegal war in Iraq. Americans were pretty quick to disown the French for that, so don’t sit here and preach about how we all buddies.

@WingBlade read the article again please you have a complete wrong idea of what this article is trying to tell you. If you can’t read properly I could help you in grasp the information in this article even though I am not a native English speaker.

I agree completely with all people and all of the world deserving the same empathy and support when faced with tragedy. I am guilty of what this article describes and would like to offer my personal explanation for why because I feel it likely applies to others. My reason for reacting and responding to the attack in Paris differently than the other tragedies is simple…ignorance. I did not know about the others and I feel I am not alone in that ignorance. This is not an excuse by any means and has opened my eyes to the imperative need to take more responsibility regarding my knowledge of world affairs. I would only like to clarify my personal guilt (and I believe at least some others) is due to ignorance, not bias or prejudice or lack of interest or feelings for other parts of the world. And that I at least plan to take steps to rectify this for myself and my social circle.

Paris happened in Europe, of course Europeans are going to pay more attention to a massacre when it’s close to home… just as an African will pay more attention to a massacre somewhere in Africa. It is partly to do with the distance from one’s own area and partly to do with if you have a “family” feeling to the place where the massacre occurred. Also, we just can’t do big numbers on a realistic basis. If it was ten we’d be gutted but the bigger the number the less we can connect to it – 100 is just about conceivable, but it is a stretch to make it personal to us. 10 works, we can identify with that. A thousand? ten thousand? … a million? we just can’t wrap our heads around that emotionally.. it gets shunted into the intellectual where feelings, sympathy can’t work.

Anonymous, you make this post and then you post a video to your Facebook that doesn’t mention the other countries at all. You talk specifically about France and how that’s revolting. Why did you not mention Beirut or Baghdad as well?